


under the light of a thousand stars

by onward



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternating Perpectives, Fluff, M/M, wow i cant think of anything else my tag game is weak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-10
Updated: 2015-04-10
Packaged: 2018-03-22 04:06:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3714340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onward/pseuds/onward
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haru notices the first falling star, and as he points up to it his hand tightens around Makoto’s. Makoto’s stomach does three little flips, and suddenly he’s warm from his head to his toes. Haru looks so beautiful, his eyes shining like they’re reflecting the light of the stars above them.<br/>Is this what being in love feels like?</p>
            </blockquote>





	under the light of a thousand stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pinkfxy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pinkfxy/gifts).



> yoooo maggie! you probably have no idea who i am! well, it is i, your backup secret santa for the free!ss2k14. your real santa appeared, so writing this was no longer strictly necessary, but, well, i promised. and it's here!! 
> 
> also, upon careful inspection after re-watching free!, i have come to the conclusion that it is unlikely that the tachibanas have a backyard. whoops.
> 
> and if it wasn't already made obvious by the title, i listened to thinking out loud by ed sheeran waaaay too much while writing this (~_~;)
> 
> ANYWAY. merry very belated christmas! i hope you like it .｡ﾟ+.ヽ| ゝ∀・*|ﾉ｡+.ﾟ

7. 

“Haru-chan should come see the meteor shower with us too!”

Makoto is grinning, holding his mother’s hand as she gets ready to take him home. It’s getting late; the sun is setting earlier and earlier despite the summer’s long days, and the shadows are lengthening as the evening grows closer. The crickets chirp from their bushes, and Haru thinks his eyes catch the night's first star as the sky begins to fade to a blue closer to that of the sea.

He looks up at his mom, searching her eyes for confirmation. She nods, smiling at Makoto’s mother and letting Haru go over to Makoto, where his friend swaps holding hands with his mom in favor of holding Haru’s. Their mothers exchange a few more words, but Haru’s too busy watching Makoto swing their arms back and forth to listen.

When their mothers part, Makoto tugs Haru along, nearly skipping in his excitement. Haru can see the gleam in his eyes without even having to lean in to look for it.

Makoto’s parents set up a tent for them out in the backyard, where the sky will be open for the two of them to see. It’s looking to be a clear night; the clouds that remain from earlier in the day are drifting away in wisps towards the mountains, where they disappear into the air.  By the time dinner’s over and Makoto’s parents have left them to go outside, the sky has turned an inky blue, only the horizon remaining slightly lighter where the sun has just disappeared. They make their way over to the tent by the light of a gas lamp Makoto’s parents supply them with, taking too-large steps over every obstacle that could potentially make them fall. 

“My mom says that if you make a wish when you see a shooting star, then that wish will come true!” Makoto says when they’ve settled themselves in front of the tent, the lamp off and sitting on the grass on Makoto’s right. 

“That’s a lot of wishes,” Haru mumbles. Makoto smiles.

“I’ll bet the first shooting star we see will be the luckiest,” he says.

They both look up, searching the sky for streaks of bright white against deep blue. They’re silent for a moment, the only proof Haru has that Makoto is still there being the warm weight of Makoto’s hand upon his own. Then he hears Makoto gasp and follows his friend's gaze just soon enough to catch the end of a trailing star, gone as soon as he lays his eyes on it. 

“Quick, Haru! Make your wish before it’s gone!”

Haru thinks about what he could wish for, sorting away the unimportant and searching for something worth the lucky first star. He decides that everything he wants is here right now, so instead of anything else, Haru wishes for days like this one to come more often.

When he’s done and he’s confident his wish as been transmitted to the stars, he looks up at Makoto and asks his friend what he wished for.

“You’re not supposed to say it! You’ll ruin the wish!” Makoto answers. Haru tilts his head, a little confused, but goes back to looking at the sky.

Makoto ends up falling asleep before they can see any more stars, his head nodding lower and lower until eventually he collapses onto Haru’s lap in fatigue. Haru wakes him up for just long enough to drag him into the tent and cover him with his blanket, before whispering good night and laying down on his own makeshift bed.

9.

They make it a tradition.

Every year, the two of them go to Makoto’s house and camp out in the backyard to look at the stars. Each streak across the sky elicits a shout from the first to see it, and they both make their wishes together, though it’s always in the privacy of their own heads.

This year, Makoto worries the whole week leading up to the meteor shower. A big summer storm’s passing through Iwatobi, bringing rain and thunder with it. He frets and worries until the night before, when, as he’s falling asleep, he hears the rain slow and eventually come to a stop. 

The next day, he’s sure he has more energy than even Nagisa has ever had. He feels like he could go skipping around the entire town, but chooses to run to Haru’s house instead.

They spend the day at Haru’s until nightfall, when they make their way over to the Tachibana’s backyard for their third year. Makoto doesn’t often go out into the yard at night, so it’s weird for him to not have the view of the town he usually does. Everything’s all black now, only the spots of light dabbling the landscape with white differentiating the sea from the shore.

Haru catches the first star this year. It falls so high up it’s almost directly over their heads. Makoto leans his whole body backward just so he can see it.

Makoto wishes for the same thing he wished last year, and the year before: to never have to stop being with Haru. Maybe, he thinks, maybe wishing it every year will make it get closer to coming true.

This time the two of them stay up later, counting the stars as they streak by. They count twenty-three before Makoto starts to get drowsy. The last thing he remembers is resting his head on Haru’s shoulder, nodding off just a bit and starting to slide off before Haru bumps him back up again. He pushes his head farther into the crook between Haru’s neck and shoulder and then he’s fading into the dark of sleep.

12.

It feels more quiet, this time around. Makoto doesn’t know why; maybe it’s because the crickets have calmed down, or the wind isn’t blowing the ocean waves onto the shore with as much vigor as past years. It feels more like he and Haru are alone in the universe, like it’s just them and the stars. 

Makoto’s stopped holding Haru’s hand for a few years, as other pairs of childhood friends grow distant and he follows their example. He still wants to, though, and every once in a while he wonders if other kids want to hold their best friend’s hand too. Now, with the two of them so isolated from everyone else, the urge is almost strong enough to make Makoto do it. He catches himself just as he’s lifting his hand off the grass, pulling it back quickly. Haru seems to notice it, though, and glares at him sideways before putting his hand over Makoto’s. Makoto’s head starts to spin.

_Haru’s just like this_ , Makoto thinks to himself, _he doesn’t care what anyone thinks. He’ll do things like he’s always done them._

It doesn’t stop his cheeks from burning bright red. 

Haru notices the first falling star, and as he points up to it his hand tightens around Makoto’s. Makoto’s stomach does three little flips, and suddenly he’s warm from his head to his toes. Haru looks so beautiful, his eyes shining like they’re reflecting the light of the stars above them.

Is this what being in love feels like?

The star fades into the night, and Haru closes his eyes to make his wish. Makoto’s heart stutters in his chest, and he hurries to think of his own wish, thinks maybe this sudden understanding, whatever it means, should change it–but then, it really shouldn’t. So, once again, he just wills with all his heart that he’ll be able to stay with Haru as long as he can.

And when Haru smiles at the sky and Makoto’s heartbeat speeds up, he finally has a word to go with it. And that’s all that changes.

15.

Haru’s parents move away the week before the meteor shower.

Haru thinks about asking them to stay just long enough to come with him, just for once, but dismisses the idea. The falling stars have always been for him and Makoto, and that doesn’t have to change because his parents are going away without him. 

The shower has always held a feeling of melancholy for Haru, as it announces the beginning of the summer’s end. This year is even worse: with his parents gone and his first autumn in high school starting in less than a month, it feels like he needs to grasp every second before it leaves forever, but every one is just passing through his fingers like water. He doesn’t know how to hold on anymore.

As the two of them sit watching the last light of the sunset, Makoto seems to sense something is wrong, and he gives Haru a reassuring smile. Haru smiles back, just the slightest bit. 

The first star appears right where Haru’s looking, up in the sky above the ocean. It’s followed by three smaller, faster ones that vanish a split second after they appear. Haru knows from Makoto’s gasp that he’s seen them too.

And Haru, instead of wishing for his parents to return, instead of wishing to get his old family back, wishes that he will always have the family he has now. 

Makoto’s all the family he’s ever needed, really.

They’re up late into the night. Makoto’s finally able to stay up later than eleven, which means they manage to witness the peak of the shower, when so many stars are falling that their eyes don’t know where to look. Makoto’s alertness turns out to be a blessing and a curse, though, when he can’t sleep because he’s afraid of every little rustle coming from outside. Haru has to help him talk his way to sleep, asking him about the new book he’s been reading and letting Makoto ramble his way into a doze.

Makoto still falls asleep first.

18.

It's their last summer before college, and Makoto knows it's the last night they’ll get to watch the stars together. The shower's too close to the end of the summer for visits, no matter where Haru chooses to go, and the sky up in Tokyo is so polluted with street lights that he won't be able to see it alone even if he wants to.

Neither of them mention it. Even with the words left unsaid, though, the silence is comfortable. They don't speak from the moment they set up the tent up through the night, settled in silence as they watch streaks of light illuminate the sky. The hours pour by slowly but surely, but neither of them make a move to go to sleep, both holding on to the moments as long as they can.

By three in the morning Makoto feels almost drunk on the late hour. He's stalling, and he knows it, trying to keep the last moments he has here and seal them in place so he can keep living them forever. Makoto thinks he might burst with every second he's trying to hold in, the feeling making him even more giddy than his fatigue.

"What did you wish for?" he asks Haru, breaking their streak of silence.

Haru stirs where he's sitting, his hands on the ground behind him, holding him up.

"Isn't it bad luck to say?" he answers, still looking up.

Makoto laughs. "Yeah, I guess," he says. He can't take his eyes off Haru.

And suddenly he feels sick in love, like every muscle in his body has tensed up and released at the same time, and his head is spinning because no matter what he does he knows he’ll never love anybody as much as he loves Nanase Haruka at this exact moment.

Haru turns his head to meet his gaze and Makoto only hopes that he's not as transparent as he feels then and there, his heart on his sleeve and his whole body aching with feeling.

"Makoto, I have something to tell you," Haru says, and Makoto's breath catches in his throat. They’re silent for a while, then Haru takes a deep breath.

"I'm going to Tokyo," Haru says, and it takes Makoto's brain a few seconds to process what he's just heard. By the time it's registered, Haru's already explaining how he's going to enroll in a smaller university with a good swim team that sends a lot of their graduates to the Olympics. Makoto doesn't need to hear any more, though, and he flings his arms around Haru and pulls him in tighter than he ever has before. 

Haru makes a small, surprised noise, and for a few seconds stays still, but then he just barely places his arms up around Makoto's shoulders. The touch is so light that Makoto can hardly feel it, but Makoto's never felt more secure.

Makoto could stay there forever, but for the first time, he feel like he doesn't have to.

He pulls away, slowly, still wanting to savor every moment of this spinning happiness that's filling him to the brim. He looks into Haru's eyes as they pull apart. They look even more blue than usual, reflecting only the light of the night sky.

Haru's the one to kiss him.

Makoto’s not expecting it. Looking back, he should have seen it coming–the whole setup is too good to be true–but when it happens it takes him by surprise, the realization coming over him in waves and melting him to the core as if he couldn't get any happier already. He kisses Haru back with everything he's got in him, and he feels like he does when he's been sitting out in the sun all day, or wrapped in a blanket that's just come out of the dryer.

And maybe it was wishing for Haru every year, or maybe it was just fate. Makoto doesn't know, and he likely never will. All he knows is that here and now feels more right than anything else in the world.


End file.
